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Friday, September 14, 2012

Is There Hope For This Man?

I have permission to share this little story from my friend, who is a missionary in Guatemala. It goes something like this:
After the church meeting in NYC, they were walking down the sidewalk, which was kind of dark and late at night. There was a series of meetings going on in this city during the evenings. While walking on the sidewalk, a large dark figure was approaching. He recognized my friend and said, "Pray for me". But something strange and mysterious was happening. While this man was desiring prayer, some kind of force was dragging him in the other direction. It was invisible. But the dark figure was pulled away. And then he was completely out of view.
A couple of days later, the missionary from Guatemala was speaking in this New York City church again. He and his wife had not seen the mysterious figure since the night they saw him on the sidewalk. But this evening, his wife espied him in the audience. So, he tried to find him and talked to this dark, large figured large man that met him on the sidewalk, and when he did, he said 'Pray for me'. Somehow, the mysteriously figured man was pulled away again. What was that all about? What was God up to in that?
Fast forward two years later. The missionary from Guatemala encountered this mysterious man, and the man asked him if he remembered him. He told the missionary man what had happened. After the night in the meeting where he attended, and asked for prayer for the second time, then disappeared, he went back home and repented. You see, he was a warlock. He was living with a witch, and he left that kind of lifestyle and actually told authorities on himself for some of the crimes he had done. He came to Christ and was radically saved. He was sent to prison, where he served during that two year period. He was able to minister to those in the prison while he was there. He did get out and ministered the Gospel to people. The last report on him was that as he was ministering the Gospel, he was injured so badly that his leg had to be amputated.
We really don't know how effective our ministering is while we are serving here on earth. I remember one person, who was asked, "When you die, are you 100% sure that you will go to heaven?" That question triggered his thinking and God used it to bring this man to Himself. Another person was having a conversation with some people, and one person, probably not even a believer asked, "How do we know we exist?" For this man, it involved his researching the Gospel until he found his answer. You just never know what God will use to minister to people with. One more example was George Whitefield, who did open air preaching to thousands of people, who had a heckler. The heckler would mock George and everything he was saying. He used motions like George and even had his own little audience. Well guess what God did? This heckler repented after the message was given and came to Christ! God has a sense of humor and will reach people in whatever ways He deems best.